Thursday, August 27, 2009

Meet My Peeps: The O’Neil Updater

I debated whether to feature MaryBeth or Beth first, since the roles they play in my life are intertwined (a story for another day)….but since I told you a little bit about MaryBeth here, I decided Beth would come first in my series. Not to mention I want to send as many people over to Beth’s neck of the blogworld ASAP, so y’all can start to bathe her sweet family in some serious prayer.

But we’ll get to that.

First, just how gorgeous is this girl?

That’s her and her hubby Daniel this past Mother’s Day. Aren’t they cute?

But listen to me – starting this post off on a shallow note, and Beth is anything but shallow. In fact, she is one the most genuine souls I think I’ve ever had the gift of knowing.

When I first met Beth at a Superbowl party this past February, I was intimidated by her. She was stunningly beautiful and carried her (at the time) 8-month-pregnant belly with a grace that made me and my (at the time) 9-week-pregnant belly very childishly jealous. I think I allowed my jealousy and intimidation cast a poor (and unfair) light on Beth, because I truly thought that she would be someone I’d have to tolerate being in small group fellowship with; it never once occurred to me that we might actually become friends.

And after that encounter, there was really no period of transition. You see, by the time we lost Duncan, Beth-the-Mommy was facing her own baby heartache, and it drew us together in an eternal way. (Well, that and a shared love for pedicures and carbs!)

Interpeeps, meet Presley:

Isn’t she the yummiest thing you’ve seen in a sweet forever? Beth and I have already decided: Presley is Seth’s fiancee. I love her, Beth loves Seth….we interchange mothering duties with our children seamlessly, so we figure we’d make pretty decent co-grandmas someday.

Seth and Beth making cookies this past weekend

But I digress. I was talking about Presley.

We have known for a while that Presley had a heart murmur. What we didn’t anticipate was that Presley’s heart murmur wouldn’t get better, and that she would be facing open heart surgery at only six months of age.

In two weeks, actually.

On September 9, a team of surgeons is going to take that sweet little girl away from her mommy and they are going to put her to sleep and they are going to cut her tiny chest open and they are going to fix the hole in her heart.

And that is a good thing. The fixing.

But this process? It hurts, so much. It hurts me in a general way, because I’m a mom. But because Beth is like a sister to me – because I have held that little 10 lb. baby in my arms and fed her carrots and picked out clothes for her – I hurt in a way that I have never hurt before.

Beth is such a good writer; if you take the time to read back through her most recent blog entries, you will see the breaking heart of a mother who is bravely choosing to trust her Father to heal her daughter. I encourage you to do so, and to get to know this courageous woman who is so special to me.

Please keep Beth, her husband Daniel, their son Triston, and sweet Presley in your prayers in the coming weeks.

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And because I want to sing the praises of Lisa Leonard just one more time, as well as share just how beautiful this is….

I arranged to have the girls from our small group purchase this necklace for Beth, and Lisa was sweet enough to rush the order so that Beth could have it in time for Presley’s surgery. I wanted her to have a tangible thing to hold on to if we aren’t all there to hold her hand.

Tell her she can contact me if she wants to. My Benjamin had open-heart surgery at 5 1/2 months old (last October). It was at Vanderbilt--Dr. Christian did it. She is free to look at my blog from last October, and there is TONS on there from his surgery. It is a little scary sometimes for moms to look at pictures, but it was some of the best preparation there is. They even make you do it at pre-op at Vandy, to prepare you for how you will see your child.

OK- I thought about and prayed for you all day yesterday, but didn't get to call, write, e-mail or ANYTHING! Just wanted you to know I was thinking about you. And Beth has such a kind friend to send out her story! I can't wait to pop over and give her some love and prayer. AND... LL is doing another giveaway on my blog next week for my big birthday extravaganza!! You gotta love her!